Chapter 114: Dangerous as They Say

Boots of the Returning Hero

+5 Resistance

+3 Focus

Allies of the wearer of these boots can perceive their footfalls at triple the range, and more easily locate their position.

What? Will thought, frowning. Your allies…can hear you coming better? That sounded vaguely useful to coordinate stealth operations with multiple operatives, but Will didn’t quite understand why they would be called ‘of the returning hero’.

Well, they grant Focus, and that’s what I need right now, Will shrugged, beginning the laborious process of tying the boots one-handed.

I may just need to find another Ring of the Eidolon, because this is awful. The ability to touch things with Phantom Hand had been taken for granted for a while now.

I do have another Primary Upgrade available, Will thought as he finished the knot. I wonder-

Will frowned, head rearing up.

It was too quiet.

The distant sound of shouting and soldiers searching buildings had unobtrusively faded into the background of his awareness over the last few minutes, then it had dwindled to nothing over the last few seconds.

Ability!

Will clapped his arms over his head and neck.

***Caddock***

“Hit it.”

The Nuker beside him nodded, and an instant later, the abandoned water tower exploded into flames and shrapnel.

One particularly stubborn piece of garbage went flying to the east, trailing smoke as it flew.

“Knock it down.” Caddock said. He didn’t want it flying far.

BOOM!

An explosion directly above William Oh drove him straight down, sending the deceiver crashing through the roof of a nearby home.

“I don’t like that building blocking my view.” Caddock mused.

The Nuker nodded, and a moment later, the houses walls exploded outward, a detonation from the Deceiver’s exact entry point, clearing the view while driving their quarry further straight down.

“Lock him down.” A little paralysis will do us some good.

Their cursemage nodded and a flicker of charge sang through their body before the effect leapt across the way towards the destroyed building.

An instant later, Caddock felt a strange vibration of Charge through the air.

“He countered it.”

“He did what?”

“The charge just, pbbbblt.” The Cursemage blew a raspberry.

Caddock’s eye twitched. The dossier did not say anything about him being able to counterspell. Caddock thought sourly.

William Oh was incredibly hard to pin down because he was a jack of all trades, and leveraged it beautifully.

He was a bit slower than their scouts of equal level, but he fought better, so he lured them away from their warriors to kill the scouts. Caddock had ordered them not to chase him beyond a certain distance from their backup…but people got caught up in the heat of battle.

William wasn’t as good at fighting as their dedicated Warriors and Tanks of equal level, so he simply never fought them, instead pelting them with stolen ammunition from a distance whenever he had the chance.

Their Nukers could do decent damage if they could pin them down, but William Oh was nearly as tough as a Tank and squirrelly as an orchard, and he had a tendency to use Caddock’s men as human shields.

Thankfully the boy only had one hand so all he could do was launch bullets from a makeshift sling, rather than anything more dangerous.

I can scarcely believe how long this bastard has been dodging us.

Seven HOURS ago they’d closed the net around Basalt, and after the first hour of playing hide-and-seek, the Tower’s light had dwindled to nothing for the night, plunging the town into complete darkness.

Caddock had done night operations many times and knew that anyone with Acuity below thirty or so would have trouble navigating at night, and plenty of their men fell below that mark.

Anyone above sixty Acuity could see in the night clear as day, and anyone above one hundred could practically see with their ears, nose, and skin.

Most of his scout’s Acuity lay between thirty and fifty.

The 4^th floor was a Ranger’s playground, but there were very few scouts above level 25, since the Sixth Floor had a high death rate for scouts, especially land-based Rangers who found themselves trapped on a floating box, their survival dependent on their crewmates and not their own obsolete survival skills.

Hell, my Nukers can see better than a lot of these scouts.

“Should we move in?” Hiro asked, looking at the ruined building, eager for a second chance at proving himself against the deceiver ever since he’d learned who they were chasing.

Good way for the kid to make us look like a bunch of bumbling idiots again. I need to do something about his maneuverability. Take away his places to hide.

“…He’s not there anymore. Is everyone out of the town now?” Caddock asked.

“Yessir.”

“Burn it down.” Caddock said, motioning expansively to the town. “Pull everyone out to the outskirts and burn it.”

By morning there wouldn’t be any places to run or hide, or William Oh would be burnt to a crisp. Either outcome would satisfy Caddock.

Hiro frowned but did not question, heading to relay his orders to the rest of the army.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

It was a matter of seconds before their logistician, a pencil-pusher of some political affiliation or other who coordinated supplies between his army and the church, came to a sliding halt in front of him.

“Milord Paladin, this is-“ At a glance from Caddock the man lowered his voice and minded his tone.

“This is a town of substantial financial interest for the church, we can’t-”

Caddock seized the political appointee by the scruff of his neck and pointed at the mountain.

“That was the primary financial interest of the church, and the Deceiver already destroyed it. when this is reported, they’ll send an army of engineers to repair it, an army to whom rebuilding a town will be an afterthought.”

“…Sir.”

“So far you’ve done a good job keeping everyone fed, clothed and bandaged, but if you ever tell me what I can’t do, and it doesn’t have anything to do our supplies…I will fong you. Is that understood?”

The logistician nodded vigorously.

“LIGHT THIS PLACE UP!” Caddock bellowed, turning away from him.

***William Oh***

I’m almost offended, Will thought sourly, watching from the eve of a nearby building, clinging to the underside like a bat as he plucked splinters out of his skin. Will didn’t get very many splinters anymore, his skin was nearly as hard as the wood itself.

It took getting blasted through a building by Conflagration to get them nowadays. The burns from the explosions didn’t really hurt either, thanks to his stolen armor.

He’d been hoping for the commander to tromp into the ruins of the building and poke around a bit, shaking his fist at the heavens while he impotently cursed Will’s name. It wouldn’t have improved his situation, but it would’ve given Will some much-needed props for the skin-of-his teeth escape.

But instead, he bellowed ‘light this place up!’ and walked away.

At first, Will naively thought he meant to scatter lamps, torches and Abilities around the town to better see Will moving around in the dark.

But then a squad of protected Nukers started lighting buildings on fire, including the one Will was in.

Damnit, Will thought, wincing as he climbed through the window and dove through the empty building, aiming for the window into the alley nearby.

Will skidded to a halt as he spotted a bowl of cold soup and a plate of baklava left there by the evacuated civilians.

Will shrugged and wolfed the unexpected snack down before continuing on his way. It was only afterwards that poison occurred to him, but Aspect of the Goat made that not a concern…probably.

Will jumped out of the burning house and began working his way towards the outskirts of town.

Will could see where this was going. They were going to flatten the entire town to take away his ability to hide. If he retreated to the outskirts, they would prod him back into the flames or outright kill him.

If he retreated further up the mountain the town was perched on, they would close the net tighter around him, giving him less options in the future.

There were no good choices.

If…I still had zero Charge.